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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Bad News:We are drowning in water. I can't mow because the grass is too wet. I keep filling my rain barrel and accidentally draining it into my already over-wet yard (three times!). But not to worry, more rain lurks on the horizon!

Only I prefer to hear my bad news first, so I can end on good news:

The Bad News:I don't have a photo library this week because my photo drive died. It really puts a cramp in my blogging style not to have photos to remind me what's worth posting about.

I want to tell you about the first day of school, our trip to the Reptile Farm last week, and our new kitty. I want to show you my garden, a whole bunch of spiders and cool bugs I've found lately, my new crock-pot mac'n'cheese recipe, and some cool eclectic furniture we "inherited" from a family friend.

I want to post a photo of Boo with her braces off today, of Rooster lying sad and sick on the couch watching movies for three straight days, of Lulu's first day out of the house without me, at Mothers' Day Out yesterday.

Today, I don't even have archive photos to fake a story with.

The Good News:My computer genius husband persevered until he found a program that rescued 13,000 files off that photo drive. I don't know if that's all of my photos, or if they are all pristinely uncorrupted, but it's more data than I was starting to fear I had. I still don't have a place to download new photos off my camera, but I can accept being patient better than I can accept being without hope.

And not to worry anyway, these fun moments will probably pass by the time I get my photo storage issue solved, because I will have new moments to share by then. That seems to be the trend of my life, that I have a constant stream of interesting things inspiring me to write. Really, I consider myself fortunate to be surrounded with notable people, places, things and ideas almost every day.

The Bad News:I've got a Knot in my personal life that I've been trying to unravel, and it's dragging me down. This is a difficult situation in need of some redemption, but not really appropriate for processing here. I am trying to work through it but it's a pretty big knot and I can not move forward until it gets addressed.

The Good News:Of course you might know that every.single.thing around me speaks to this situation, from the Tinkerbell movie the kids have been watching this week to the life story I heard last weekend, from the book I am reading for small group this fall, to the Bible study I am working on writing. I am confident the issue will get addressed soon, or the entire universe might just contract and close in on itself from too much emphasis on a particular thought.

The Bad News:Speaking of that Bible study series, which was assigned in March, which is due in three weeks, and which I just basically started working on two weeks ago, I am totally being challenged on this. Wrestling with God's treatment of a faithless nation takes concentration.

What don't I have this week? Concentration.

I have the aforementioned Knot. I have a baby that just realized her #1 and #2 playmates headed off to school, so she's turning to me and to every.single.thing in this house that is not baby-proofed. Which is actually a lot of things. I can't take my eyes off of her.

Did I also mention my #2 child who has had a fever since Sunday morning and has been home from school all week? Or my #1 child with an ortho appointment today to remove her braces? Maybe I didn't mention yet that I randomly invited friends over last Saturday night, or that I've agreed to lead a home group for my church this fall.

The Good News:I am really looking forward to MOPS and fall planting. I got to put Lulu in Mothers' Day Out one day a week so I can at least have one three hour window a week to concentrate. And yesterday I kicked some Bible study butt (can I say that?) during that window.

Also, at least I'm not depressed on top of everything else. That little square normal pill is coming in really handy right now, helping even out my response to all the stressors present in my life at the moment. I have a lot of strong emotions, but the sad indigo note merely comes and goes without stopping and camping out.

This is also good news because do you know what's depressing? The Israelite nation in the time of the Judges. Having to live and breathe God's judgment of a family of people who simply couldn't put two godly generations together back to back. I may be getting in some good return kicks, but this study is intense.

And the Best News of All:The more I wrestle with the stories of Judges, the less I see of faithless people and inadequate leaders. The subtext of this book really underlines God's faithfulness. He made a covenant with one nation. That nation defied him and made mockery of him over and over, but every time he became angry and punished them, his purpose was not to destroy them or the covenant. Think how easily he could have just blown them all from the face of the earth after they repeatedly turned away from him to worship other gods.

Instead, the punishment was always given to bring the people to a point of repentance, after which they were restored to relationship with him. Punishment as a means of restoration. That's good thinking material. Good for my difficult situation, good in parenting, good to just ponder.

And that is all I've got today, just a crazy stream of consciousness. Not even any photos.

I am sure you will survive. Now I've got to get back to my new friend Ehud, the left-handed judge.